Thursday, December 7, 2017

Reminder: Army-Navy Swim Meet

The Army West Point men's swimming and diving team will battle it out in Annapolis, Md., against service-academy rival Navy in the highly-anticipated Army-Navy meet slated for Thursday at 5 p.m. at Lejeune Hall.

The Black Knights are 2-1 this season in dual meets and are coming off a first-place finish at the Terrier Invitational...

The Midshipmen claimed last year's meet with Army by a score of 156.5-143.5.

Swim meet scoring: 9 points (1st), 4 points (2nd), 3 points (3rd), 2 points (4th), 1 point (5th). The margin of victory above is therefore just a touch more than a 1st place finish in a single race. If memory serves, Navy swept the diving (15 points) last year, which is why my analysis earlier in the week tabbed Army diver Hudson Kay as the guy to watch in this particular contest.

For reference, Navy won all four years when I was at the Academy, by 15 points my plebe year and by a whopping *4* points my yearling year. That was the year that we had an exchange cadet swim for Navy, and his single, miserable 2nd place finish in the 200 freestyle actually cost Army the star.

That motherfucker. As I write this, I'm still so pissed off about what he did that I'm actually shaking.

Grrr... What an asshole. Seriously.

*deep yoga breathing*

Alas, this is why I do so much yoga and exercise. Not just because I enjoy it, and it helps me stay focused and fit, but also because I can be a boiling cauldron of rage otherwise, even at age 44. That's not good for anyone.

Truth is, I got a little too good at channeling my emotions as a swimmer, and now, as an adult, I have trouble turning it off at times. Useful skill if you need to push hard across the line at a charity 5K or anchor a team in the Swim Across the Sound. Much less helpful on a regular Tuesday when your kid needs help with her Algebra.

Anyway. My regular readers will already know that I won my event against Navy 3 times (7 if you include better finishes at the various ECAC Championship races) and got 3rd as a firstie while recovering from mono. But Army swept the event my firstie year, meaning that I personally went 8-0 against all Navy swimmers head-to-head. I would trade record that in a minute for a star, but it's still a decent, relatively rare individual accomplishment.